dream house is a nightmare and a bad role model for girls. they're protesting the attraction designed to showcase her malibu lifestyle. >> in this place visitors tour the life size pink mansion filled with dolls and other displays. of course here in the u.s., barbie dream house opened in florida last week to mixed reviews. always an opinion on barbie. >> this programming note. anthony bourdain is in libya sunday night right here on cnn. parts unknown comes on at 9:00 eastern. so tune in. >> that will do it for us. we're off to buy more lottery tickets. $600 million. >> if we win, maybe we'll be back. >> i will buying something. thanks for watching. newsroom starts now.

everything just destroyed. people were injured. we saw the injured people and they asked if we could help them to the hospital, so we started loading people up. but the whole neighborhood was gone. the lives of many people this north texas have been shattered and now they face the task of moving on after an incredible disaster. and sparks fly on capitol hill over the irs scandal. lawmakers accused agency of abusing its power, its outgoing acting commissioner offers an apology, but there are still many unanswered questions. plus, what would you do with half a billion dollars? i've got a couple of ideas. we're talking about the power ball lotto frenzy sweeping the united states right now. this is cnn newsroom. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we want to welcome our viewers. could be another couple of days before texas storm victims are allowed back into what's left of their homes to assess the damage after tornadoes flattened an

entire neighborhood. six people were killed in the storms. dozens of homes destroyed. now the good news. everyone reported missing after the storms has been accounted for. alaina ma alaina machado is joining us live. do we know where those who lost their homes are staying, what they're doing? how are they managing? >> reporter: they're holding up as best as can be expected. we know some of those people have been staying with family and friends. weal al also know there are two cross shelters opened. one in granbury and 31 people used that shelter overnight. i want to give you a taste of the kind of damage and destruction we've been seeing here all day. i'm standing on top of what's left of a mobile home here as you can see, it's really mainly just a mile of debris. we've seen a lot of wood with pieces of nail like this one. and aside from that refridge at

a time refrigerator and that partial wall, it's not recognizable. this place is about a mile from the rancho brazos sub televisdi that most of the 110 homes were either damaged or destroyed in the storm. cnn has spoken with two survivors, two people who rode out the storm in their homes and this is what they had to say about the experience. >> i had my eyes closed. we were all praying. it was just awful. the scare crestieiest feeling. i was worried about my kids. it was just an awful thing to experience. >> felt like it lasted forever, but probably lasted about 4 to 5 minute wills maybe. we just ran in and we threw everyone in the bathtub, children first.ills maybe. we just ran in and we threw everyone in the bathtub, children first.lls maybe. we just ran in and we threw everyone in the bathtub, children first.s maybe. we just ran in and we threw

everyone in the bathtub, children first.s maybe. we just ran in and we threw everyone in the bathtub, children first. maybe. we just ran in and we threw everyone in the bathtub, children first.maybe. we just ran in and we threw everyone in the bathtub, children first.s maybe. we just ran in and we threw everyone in the bathtub, children first. pillows and blankets. didn't have time to get mattress. and the roof flew off. >> reporter: those people obviously very thankful they survived. six others died in this tornado. they were all at the rancho brazos subdivision and they were between 34 and 83 years old. initially there were reports that seven people were hissin m. but just a few hours ago, we got good news that all of those seven people have been accounted for and that they have been found alive. and obviously that is very good news for this community who is dealing with so much tragedy and so much destruction. >> what a tragedy indeed. alina, thanks for that report. chad myers is joining us now from the cnn weather somewhere. i understand more severe storms expected this weekend? what do we know? >> if we had been this the tornado drought, we should have 500 tornadoes on the ground by this time of the year, we've had about 1250. so we'll start -- there are cold

air showers in the west, a lot of warm air in the east. when warm and cold clash, you get storms. today across parts of the inner high plain, nebraska, parts of colorado, but by saturday and really into sunday, from madison, wisconsin, almost chicago chicago down towards saint lewis into omaha, oklahoma city, that's the area i'm most concerned about. but even monday, it could be st. louis, joplin, ft. smith. it could be another couple of days where we see tornadoes just one after another after another. we will keep you advised right here at cnn. >> and i know there were at least 16 tornadoes that hit north texas on wednesday night. is that a lot by any standards? how strong was the tornado for example that decimated that

gra granbury, texas neighborhood? >> 16 is not a lot for an outbreak, but wednesday was not an outbreak kind of day. shouldn't have had two tornadoes. what we had basically five, we call them parent super cell thunderstorms, dropping tornadoes. sometimes they were skipping up and down, up and down. nd at damage you s and the damage you see is ef-4. 165 to almost 200 miles per hour. and i saw a few pictures where there was nothing left in the home except the slab of the home itself. all of the sticks, everything else, gone. that indicates at least 200 miles per hour and it came so fast. it came with warning, but it still comes very fast. >> very fast indeed. let's see what happens over the weekend. let's hope not much. chad, thanks very much. meanwhile, a murder mystery in nebraska right now. police are looking into whether the recent death of a professor and his wife are related to the deaths of another professor's

family members five years ago. let's begin with these latest murders. what have you learned about the case? >> omaha police tell us they are looking into the double murder of recent retirees from creighton university. they were both 65. they were just planning on retiring and moving, dr. brumbach just announcing his retirement from the pathology department. you're looking at his home. he and his wife were planning on moving to west virginia. the piano mover went to check to move the piano on tuesday. and that's when he found the body of the doctor in the hallway, mary also found inside. omaha police confirm they did have a gun clip at the scene but

will not confirm whether it had anything to do with the hur murders. investigators are treating it as a double homicide. >> as you know, this is the second double murder connected to the university's pathology department at creighton university in nebraska. what you can tell us about that case? >> and this is where it gets unusual. very strange coincidence connected to creighton university's pathology department. take a look at these two pictures. 11-year-old thomas hunter and his house keeper shirley sherman, they were fatally stabbed five years ago. this double homicide remains unsolved. hunter, the little boy, his father, dr. william hunt hwillho worked in the pathology defense. an unusual coincidence. what the police will tell cnn is that they are looking in to whether or not this case may have any connections to this

latest murder, an unsolved mystery that has taken a lot of people in omaha by surprise five years ago, continues to be a mystery. they are hoping that more calls will be generated, that people will perhaps make some connections and that they will get more tips and be able to solve both of them. >> let's hope they do. all right. thanks very much. here's what else we're working on for this hour here in the cnn newsroom. more than half a billion dollars, hard to imagine what you could do with that kind of cash. but people across the country are dreaming of winning the lotto. i'll be going out to buy my own ticket later today. plus he was once a billionaire, but now bernie madoff doesn't have enough money to make a phone call from prison. ahead, cnn spoke to him exclusively. we'll tell you what his day job is in prison right now and why he says he can't sleep. there i. we're americans.

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scene. the state fire marshal says the fire may have been intentionally set caused by an electrical short or even a spark from a golf cart. authorities began a criminal investigation into the blast last friday. it was the same day a paramedic who responded to the explosion was arrested after police found pipe bomb making materials at his home. police in new orleans have arrested a second suspect at a shooting at parade on mother's day. they believe he and the first suspect, the 19-year-old, were involved in gang activity. first suspect was charged with 20 counts of attempted second-degree murder during his court appearance yesterday. he's being held on $10 million bail. three of those wounded are still in critical condition. a deadline monday in the case against the boston bombing suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev. it will be 30 days since his indictment and it's the last day his attorneys have to appeal it. the 19-year-old is charged with one count of using a weapon of

mass destruction, another count of malicious use of an explos e explosive. he remains at a prison medical center outside boston. don't miss anderson cooper's special report back to boston later tonight. you'll hear incredible stories from some of the photographers who captured the iconic moments. tonight 10:00 p.m. eastern back to boston, moments of impact. an anderson cooper special report. i've been busy making big plans for high big lottery winnings. the jackpot for tomorrow's drawing, get this, has passed $600 million. getting very close to the largest lottery jackpot in american history. people feeling lucky in 43 states, washington, d.c. and the virgin islands. they're scooping up tickets even as we speak. let's go to passaic, new jersey.

zain asher has beenwannabes mil. someone has to win eventually, right? >> reporter: and you never know, it could actually be you. you know what they say, you do have to be in to win it. and what tends to happen is that people who don't usually play decide that they're feeling quite lucky and people who do usually play start to buy multiple ticket. but if you are going out and buying like 10, 2030 tickets, it is important that you do not spend more money than of course you can afford to lose.,30 tick it is important that you do not spend more money than of course you can afford to lose. 30 tick it is important that you do not spend more money than of course you can afford to lose. it is $600 million. if you opt for the lump sum, you'll still walk away with roughly around $376 million. and just to put that in context for you, that is basically enough money to give a dollar to every single person in this country and at the end of it you can you would still have roughly around $60 million left over.

but let's talk about chances. the chances of winning are one in 176 million. those are your chances of winning tomorrow's jackpot. one in 176 million. i mean, with odds like that, you are basically talking about fate, although that is not stopping thin. i actually asked one woman, i said if you woke up tomorrow and you had half a billion dollars in your account, how would you spend it. here's what she said. >> i would pay off my mortgage, i'ded pay off my parents' house, i would buy a house on the beach. and definitely donate to the cancer society. my mother is a cancer survivor two times already. so donate to that charity. and probably another charity. and set up a college fund for my children. >> reporter: she's definitely obviously put a lot of thought into that. but a lot of people are saying the same thing,charity, look ou for people that have looked out

for them. not a lot of people are telling me they would buy mansions or maz rserat maseratis. people will give. which i thought was quite sweet. >> is it me or are we seeing more huge lottery jackpots in recent years? >> reporter: it is not you at all. we are seeing bigger jackpots. we had the last one back in november. it was $587 million. now this one $600 million. what happened ways basically about a year and a half ago, they changed the rules. they increased the price per ticket. so it went from $1 per ticket to $2 per ticket and if you're putting more money in to the system, then of course you'll get bigger jackpots. >> the other day when the jackpot was about $300 million, i spent $6 and i bought three tickets, $2 each. here is the good news. are you ready? are you ready for the good news? >> reporter: tell me the good news. >> i won $4. i spent $6, but i won $4.

i haven't cashed it in yet, but i will at shall point. >> reporter: so if you picked the power ball, if you just get one power ball number right, you to actually get $4. it's not quite $600 million, but at least still something. >> i assumed i was going to lose all six and i got four back. that's not bad. good luck. i know you'll buy a ticket or two yourself. and if you're a lottery hopeful like me, check your tickets carefully. could win $4. this guy by the way almost lost out on a pretty sweet jackpot. richard cerezo was cleaning out old lottery tickets and he found a winner, almost $5 million. the ticket he bought months ago. and of course he came forward, collected his check and the timing could not have been better. his family's home was facing foreclosure.

congratulations, congratulations, richard. the stakes are high. the irs disclosure that it targeted conservative groups has the white house in some hot water right now. lawmakers want answers. we'll have a live report from capitol hill. e repair to healthe written by people just like you. you want to be sure the money you're about to spend is money well spent. angie's list -- reviews you can trust. it's hard to describe, because you have a numbness, but yet you have the pain like thousands of needles sticking in your foot. it was progressively getting worse, and at that point i knew i had to do something. once i started taking the lyrica the pain started subsiding. [ male announcer ] it's known that diabetes damages nerves. lyrica is fda approved to treat diabetic nerve pain. lyrica is not for everyone. it may cause serious allergic reactions or suicidal thoughts or actions. tell your doctor right away if you have these, new or worsening depression, or unusual changes in mood or behavior.

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the outgoing head of the irs gets grilled by lawmakers. a house committee just wrapped up a hearing. lawmakers are investigating the irs for targeting conservative groups. steven miller told lawmakers it was not political, it was in his word procedural. >> i do not believe partisanship motivated the people who engaged in the practices described in the treasury inspector general's report. i've reviewed that report and i believe its conclusions are consistent with that. i think what happened here was that foolish mistakes were made by people trying to be more efficient in their workload selection. >> you're arguing today that the irs is not corrupt, but the sub

text of that is you're saying we're just incompetent. >> dana bash is following the hearing dana, they kept pushing for specific, for names of people involved. they're not necessarily getting all the information they want. what can did we learn today during the several hours of testimony? >> well, a couple things. we learned from the perspective of steven miller and the inspector general, they confirmed that they did not -- they didn't report this up the ranks to obama administration officials in the treasury department, that's -- the irs' boss effectively or anyone at the white house. and also we heard from steven miller that the reason that they went ahead and did this scrutiny, excess scrutiny, was because they were getting bombarded with requests for tax exempt status and this was a short cut and as you heard him say it was not political. the other thing, though, that we

did learn which really made members of congress who were already angry about him misleading congress was that a week ago today is when we found out about this. and the reason we found out is because lois l even rner revealed it as an american bar association convention here in washington. what he admitted is that she did it because a question was planted so that she could actually reveal this information because she knew this inspector general report was coming out. so that's something that we learned and of course that raised questions of members of congress, wait a minute, we've been investigating this, we were the ones pressing for answers for years. why didn't you tell us at the same time and his answer was i called to get on the calendar, which one of the congressman says really, that's all you got? so that is something that i think at the end of the four hours, there is no question that republicans feel that they have

many more questions that they need to answer p and they will have to do it with lower level irs officials who are more involved at the front lines. >> and there is clearly a lot of anger at that hearing. republican congressman mike kelly from pennsylvania, he had a very fiery response. listen to this. >> the fact that you all can do just about anything you want to anybody, you know, you can put anybody out of business that you want anytime you want. and i got to tell you, you talked about you're a morebly run organization? you're on the other side of the fence. you're not given that excuse. and when the irs comes in, you're not allowed to be shoddy or run horgbly, you're not allowed to make mistakes. you're not allowed to do one damn thing that doesn't come into compliance. if you do, you're held responsible. i just think the american people have seen what's going on in their government. this is an outrage for all america. i yield back.

>> not onlyoften you get applaut a congressional hearing. >> unclear exactly who was applauding, but i think the reason is because he summed up the reason why this is such a big story, such a big deal that resonates and why the obama administration understands that, why the president tried to do damage control by personally going out and saying that steven miller was going to be fired. because everybody gets the irs. and the fact that it was very clear today that a lot of bureaucratic mistakes and m missteps that that's okay for them, but not okay for every single american and company and group out there that needs irs to approve what they're doing. so that was an example of him expressing that kind of frustration. >> certainly a lot of people angry. thanks very much. shameful and disgraceful the president calling the military

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after a week of dealing with controversy in washington, president obama is talking jobs in baltimore, maryland. specifically the president is focusing in on the middle class jobs market out there and new opportunities. he's visiting a company that manufactures innovative dredges and dredge equipment for infrastructure propjectprojects. we'll monitors his remarks. we'll bring you any major developments. shameful and disgraceful is how president obama describes the cases of sexual assault plaguing the u.s. military right now and yet another case is adds to the calls for change. we have details from our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. >> reporter: another

embarrassment for the u.s. military. this time at fort campbell, kentucky, home of the 101th airborne division of the officer in charge of sexual assault prevention was removed from his job after being arrested for violating a protective order to stay away from his estranged wife. >> this is major haas. >> reporter: he had september greetings to his wife while serving in 2010. the incident came to light just hours after president obama met with top brass about sexual assaults in the military. >> there is no silver bullet to solving this problem. this is going to require a sustained effort over a long period of time. >> reporter: the fort campbell firing was the third in two weeks of personnel assigned to military sexual assault prevention jobs. at ft. hood, texas, sergeant first class is under criminal

investigation by the army for pandering, a pentagon official says he may have forced someone into prostitution. other allegations, abusive sexual contact and maltreatment of subordinates. and last week a lieutenant colonel arrested on sexual battery charges for allegedly groping a womann near the pentagon where he worked in sexual assault prevention. on capitol hill, pressure is mounting for historic changes in military law. senator gillibrand is introducing legislation so in sex assault cases where there may be jail time, the decision to prosecute is taken away from commanders and given to military attorneys. many feel prosecutors from outside the unit will be more vigorous. >> we believe enough is enough. it's time to change the system that has been held over since george washington, that is simply not working today for the men and women who are serving.

>> reporter: chuck hagel has ordered the retraining of key personnel involved in sexual assault prevention programs. but with the number of cases on the rise in the military, key commanders are acknowledging they just are not sure what to do to solve the problem. >> barbara is joining us now live from the pentagon. what steps have been taken at least so far to try to get a handle on this really serious problem? >> well, they are talking about retraining, more education, tightening up on prosecutions all of that. but most people in the military will tell you this is one of the most complex problems they have faced and there is a growing acknowledgement they're just really not sure what to do about it. and i have to tell you just about an hour from now, defense secretary chuck hagel, chairman of the joint chiefs, marty

dempsey, will you holding a press conference and i think it's a safe bet to say this will be topic number one. >> and it should be. a survey out this month showed an alarming jump in the number of cases of unwanted sexual contact from 19,000 back in 2010 to 26,000 last year. so do officials have any explanation for will this very worrisome increase? >> one thing about the survey that we must explain to people, it was a very small sample survey conducted by the military and they did extrapolate on a statistical basis to come up with those numbers. the real problem of course is nobody knows what the real numbers are because so many victims don't want to report these cases just as it's a problem in civilian society, there is a lot of trauma involved with this, a lot of people, men and women who are sexually assaulted in the

military won't report when this happens. and that's one of the key issues. nobody may really know how serious this is. >> good point. barbara, thanks very much. let us know what the secretary of defense and chairman of the joint chiefs say later today. he was an internet hero. now the hatchet wielding hitchhiker is a murder suspect himself. payments. ♪ to more efficient pick-ups. ♪ wireless is limitless.

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a man who befaus from a vir thousand facing a murder charge. millions of people saw caleb mcgillvary tell how he intervened in a crime and saved two people. he was given the nickname the hatchet wielding hitchhiker. now he's accused of killing an attorney. police say the two exchanged text messages and believe their relationship went further than that. the man accused kidnapping three cleveland women apparently had a love of dogs. three dogs were found. they have since been cleaned up and neutered and now the fbi is asking cleveland officials to hang on to the dogs so that the women can claim the pets if, if, they want to. two years after gadhafi's guy lent fall from power, libyan

people are trying to get back on their feet, trying to forge a new identity. but their country is still unsettled, very uncertain, and, frankly, kind of a bizarre place right now. anthony bourdain went to libya for this weekend's installment of parts unknown. >> this is supposed to be the biggest fanciest new hotel development this town and like a lot of the newer structures, they pretty much stopped when they started to pull down the government. a lot of cranes building nothing at the moment. a lot is just frozen as everyone figures out what happens next. it's one of many moments of unexpected weirdness in libya. the frozen wait and see hotel. and militia looking at us. meanwhile right over there,

there are playing rod stewart do you think i'm sexy to an amusement park full of kids. makes no sense at all. in a vaguely encouraging way. >> very cool. you can see anthony bourdain in libya sunday night right here on cnn. parts unknown comes in the at 9:00 eastern. tune in or set your dvr. by the way, i'll be speaking with anthony bourdain later today in the situation room. that will happen during our 6:00 p.m. eastern hour. he's so broke he had to call cnn collect. an exclusive interview with bernie madoff behind bars. we'll have details. i'm telling you right now, the girl back at home would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. i'm really glad that girl stayed at home. vo: expedia helps 30 million travelers a month find what they're looking for.

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once a billionaire and head of his own finance firm, these days bernie madoff is a prisoner, just a number. he's making $40 a month. he's serving a 150 year sentence after admitting to a ponzi scheme that stole billions from thousands of investors. and now he says this. it was certainly never my intention for this to happen. i thought i could work myself out of a temporary situation but it kept getting worse and worse and i didn't have the courage to admit what i had done. cnn money erin smith spoke exclusively with madoff by phone. aaron is joining us. you got a fascinating glimpse into madoff's day to day life. he's in butler, monorth carolin there. he says he's not sleeping. what's his explanation? >> one of the first things he mentioned when he called me, he

said that he's haunted by his son's death. he feels responsible for the death of his older son, mark, who has we know committed suicide. he hanged himself on december 11, 2010, this is the second anniversary of his father's arrest. so this is one of the first things that he mentioned. he also said that it is very difficult for him to be separated from his family. he mentions that he was married for 50 years to his wife ruth. and he just feels disconnected. he may have called me because he feels lonely. >> did you know him from before? doctor would he ca why would he call you? >> i wrote him a letter and i included my number in the letter. i told him that i've written many stories about him over the last several years and i used to speak to his lawyer, but he no longer is being represented by that lawyer. and i wanted to get his point of view. i never really had any direct contact with him, so he called

me collect and i put money into his account, his prison phone account, and i spoke to him three times last week. >> how did he sound? what was the nature of his voice, did he have any sort of -- he's 75 years old. he knows the enormous damage he caused so many people out there who incevested all of their mon in him, hoping to retire one day. he bankrupted so many families, decent people. how did he sound to you? >> he sounded very calm and collected. he sounded almost sort of grandfatherly. but sounds like he's in pretty good health. he doesn't necessarily sound like how you might envision a 75-year-old man who has been in prison for several years coming across. he is clearly very intelligent. when he started talking about the trades he used to do and started going into the wall

street jor begargon, some of it over my head and i found it intimidating at times and i started to think about how he used to communicate with his investors. and i can totally see how someone would give him money. he is very reassuring. and he definitely sounds like a man who knows what he's doing. >> he caused his son to commit suicide, he destroyed so many people's lives. what does he do now? >> he has a job where he makes $40 a month. that's a month. and he basically cleans off phones and computers and he checks to see if they're still working. these are the computers and phones for the prison system. he emphasized this is not a technical job, it requires no skill whatsoever. and that's what he's doing right now. he says he only works a few hours a day which i think gives him considerable amount of down time to basically think about where he is right now. >> do you know if he can watch television, does he have a computer, can he go online? obviously he can make phone

calls if people will accept his collect calls. >> yes, we didn't really go into a the llot of detail on that buo think he is plugged into the news. he does seem to be aware of news events. and i would like to hear more from him because i'd like to hear about what he has to say about the current situation on wall street. i would ask him if he thinks that the stock market is overpriced. >> all right. just me, i don't want to hear what he has to say about wall street. he's done so much damage to so many people. i know several families that have invested money with him and they lost it all. these people were decent, honorable people who invested money with him, some of them were even holocaust survivors. and did to them what he did on them was just an awful, awful situation. but just a personal note there. thanks very much, aaron. good work. aaron smith from cnn money doing an excellent job reporting on

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the day to day task most people take for granted. a pittsburgh company is now trying to change that with some help from a friendly robot. cnn's zoraida sambolin has the story. >> shower or brush his teeth, can you tell me? >> shower. >> reporter: some children with autism are getting help from a friendly creature. >> it is a robotic therapy system designed to help children with autism learn and practice skills in a fun way. >> can you help me? >> reporter: like making their bed or brushing their teeth. students at the children's institute of pittsburgh are testing the system. they can play with popchilla using an ipad app and interact with the robot in the real world. >> you want to present things in as many formats as possible

until you find what really works for that child. this is just another tool to help them learn. >> reporter: interbots is the company that created the system. originally specializing in entertainment robotics, they realized they could help kids with autism by chance. >> we were at a kids' fair and had a high end animatronic robot there and parents came up us and explained our child has autism and never talks to strangers and rarely talks to us and he'sing about having a conversation with your robot for 15 minutes. that's when we realized there was something interesting going on here. >> reporter: the app, which can be used its own, will be available this spring. >> nice job. >> reporter: the robot could be released as early as 2015, and the app will control what the robot says and does. >> yea! >> our hope is by leveraging technology that children with autism really respon well to that we can help them learn daily routines and social interaction skills through play.

>> reporter: zoraida sambolin, cnn, new york. coming up, tear jerking memories of a murder victim, travis alexander, read out loud in court. jodi arias' fate hangs in the balance now. the defense plans to show off her art work in an attempt to save her life. the kyocera torque lets you hear and be heard even in stupid loud places. to prove it, we set up our call center right here... [ chirp ] all good? [ chirp ] getty up. seriously, this is really happening! [ cellphone rings ] hello? it's a giant helicopter ma'am. [ male announcer ] get it done [ chirp ] with the ultra-rugged kyocera torque, only from sprint direct connect. buy one get four free for your business.

the lawyer of o.j. simpson botched his case is on the stand in las vegas.

the football star is seeking a new trial. the case stems from a confrontation in las vegas back in 2007. yale galanter says he did his best to represent simpson. >> i wanted to do everything i could possibly do to give o.j. a shot at getting released. i thought that his conviction and sentence was unfair. >> simpson is serving 33 years in prison right now. in phoenix, jurors in the jodi arias trial are hearing from the family of travis alexander. they're sharing emotional stories about the man arias is convicted of brutally murdering. casey wian has details. >> reporter: steven alexander was in the u.s. army in 2008 when he found out his brother travis had been murdered, as his killer, an emotional jodi arias, sat and watched, alexander told

jurors about the unanswered questions that haunt him to this day. >> how much did he suffer? how much did he scream? what was he saying? what was the last thing he saw before his eyes closed? what was his final thought in his head? >> reporter: next, sister samantha alexander approached the podium, crying even before she spoke. >> travis was our strength, our constant beacon of hope. our motivation and his presence has been ripped from our lives. >> reporter: defense witnesses are expected to speak about several mitigating factors that could spare arias' life, including her lack of a criminal past, her past efforts to convert to the mormon faith, and her talent as an artist.

>> this is a girl right here that you pledged when you were selected as jurors that after hearing or after possibly convicting her of first degree murder and finding aggravating factors that you would consider giving miss arias life. >> reporter: in a trial full of gripping moments, one of the last is likely to come from jodi arias herself, next week, when she's expected to beg for mercy from a jury that has already convicted her of an especially cruel first degree murder. casey wian, cnn, phoenix. a man arrested on terrorism charges in boise, idaho, made his first court appearance today. the 30-year-old is from uzbekistan and is accused of supporting what is called the islamic movement of uzbekistan, a group designated by the u.s. as a terrorist organization. he's also charged with possession of an unregistered explosive device. in a separate case in utah,

he's accused of teaching people how to make explosives and weapons of mass destruction. that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. see you back here 5:00 p.m. eastern in "the situation room." ashleigh banfield takes it from here. she's live in new york. thank you, wolf. hello, everyone. i'm ashleigh banfield sitting in for brooke baldwin today. i got a lot to get to this hour, including the mother who disappeared without a trace and then reappeared after more than a decade. and guess what, now she's talking about why she walked out on her family. then, as the powerball jackpot rises to a new record, i'll speak with a man who just won millions. and get this, it was after finding the winning ticket in a cookie jar, months later. and this has got to be the video of the day, a daddy who